Federal report: Home flipping drove housing bubble

By Tim Iacono: More evidence that economists in general and dismal scientists at the Federal Reserve in particular are hopelessly and dangerously detached from reality (i.e., guided by the mistaken belief that, if something doesn’t exist in their models, neither does it exist in the real world) comes via this Associated Press

A new federal report shows that speculative real estate investors played a larger role than originally thought in driving the housing bubble that led to record foreclosures.

The Federal Housing Administration extended the "anti-flipping" rule, which restricts re-sale of an REO property within a 90-day period. As DSNews reported: "The move is intended to help stabilize home values and improve conditions in communities experiencing high foreclosure activity." What does that mean for housing prices? Like most things in life, it depends.

Home prices have begun to gather steam. Economists expect prices to rise 8% in 2013. But some are anxious about another housing bubble. Robert Shiller has said that some markets like Las Vegas look frothy.

In the grand scheme of personal finances, your take home pay is like an apple pie. Your bills are the hungry flock of kids banging their fists on the table to get their share.

Reading Kevin Drum and Alyssa Katz on why Texas didn’t see a housing bubble, it occurred to me that they might be asking the wrong question. Here’s Phoenix vs Dallas: